Disposal of hazardous wastes, such as organic waste, in landfills and by incineration has become an increasingly difficult problem because of diminishing availability of disposal space, strengthened governmental regulations and the growing public awareness of the impact of hazardous substance contamination upon the environment. Release of hazardous wastes to the environment can contaminate air and water supplies thereby diminishing the quality of life in the affected populations.
To minimize harmful environmental effects of hazardous waste disposal, methods must be developed to convert these wastes into benign, and preferably, useful substances. In response to this need, there has been a substantial investment in the development of alternate methods for suitably treating such wastes. One of the most promising new methods is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,574,714 and 4,602,574, issued to Bach et al., and includes destroying organic hazardous wastes by dissociating the waste in molten metal. Atomic components of the wastes are reformed in the molten metal to generate environmentally acceptable products, such as hydrogen and carbon oxide gases.